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Dearest Chana Bracha,

The Yeshiva sounds so great!!

I wish with all my heart that I could be right now with all my friends in B'erot. I am truly jealous of the great life you Bat Ayiners live and all the wonderful Mitsvot that you do. I am planning on moving to Bat Ayin for a year when I get married (of course my husband would have to agree) but I'm planning on it anyway.

Love, Bluma Chaya
Ps. thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to attend your beautiful Yeshiva

Hello Chana Bracha and all.
I am back in the States after a holy journey rediscovering my roots, learning, connecting with amazing teachers. My heart was filled and opened after being around you.. I have some good news. I am engaged to be married. My learning in Israel helped me focus on the blessedness of marriage and commitment. My hope is that others will have the opportunity to experience B'erot Bat Ayin, gather its many fruits and spread its seeds. I am sending blessings for you to continue growing and gathering support. I told my family about your amazing learning space and they want to contribute. Keep in touch. Shalom, Jaimie Cohn

Mazal tov To Chava Rachel who became our first alumni Kallah when marrying Yoseph Saban

I remember...
Eating sauteed houbeza & a salad of wild greens
Almond trees in bloom
Laughing at the Shabbat table
Creating a silly rap
The bonfire
Moving big, heavy rocks
Planting melons and cucumbers
Visiting kever Shimshon
Acting out what we learned in Megillat Ruth
Rolling down a grassy hill on a winter's day
Rav Kook's four-fold song
Drums by the fire under a star-filled sky
Picking fresh wild zatar (hyssop) to put in pita dough

Greetings and salutations Chana Bracha!
Immersed in my life with hardly a breath to catch, I wonder since I've made a point of coming up for air how you are? Really, I've been wondering quite a bit about all of Israel and especially those I know in Bat Ayin and Jerusalem. It must be somewhat scary, or I imagine Bat Ayin not quite being afraid of the enemies lurking to the right and left, but to still feel nestled and comforted by the awesomeness of Bat Ayin and Gush Etzions' calm aura and feeling. I imagine it to be dreamy… I miss Israel, and believe it or not the toughness it takes to be there. Actually, I've had a hard time shaking the toughness of which I speak which isn't needed here to the same extreme.
Pesach preparations are in the making and it is quite some task for a new Chabad wife, but I will get by with the help of my precious husband. Thank you so much for blessing me to be married and to find my beshert! I don't know that I have thanked you before now, but I received so much good from my stay there for 6 months. I realize this is an insufficient thank you, and probably not the first nor will it be the last, but it really changed me, my life, my destiny for the better and better, as it always is when one ascends to Israel and connects to Yiddishkite seriously.
I appreciate you weekly parshas. I like especially when they come out Thursday, and that they are much more readable and understandable to me than they were at one time.
I ask that you let people know I miss them ...especially, Mordechai and Batzion and their beautiful babies, Yedida, the Chabad family mishpacha, Elanas both, etc. All the best for a beautiful and family fun filled Pesach!
Enjoy the school and sunrises as I think of them fondly.
Next year (if not sooner) in Jerusalem!
Love and blessings ,
Basia Bracha Benjaminson